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As an acupuncturist, one of the most common complaints I get in my office is problems with sleep; difficulty falling asleep, problems staying asleep, waking up at a specific time or waking too early.

Anyone that has had a sleep problem knows what a big impact it has on all aspects of life. Poor sleep affects your mood, concentration, and productivity. Pain will be worse. Insufficient sleep has been linked long term to high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. All of these problems then seep into deteriorating personal and professional relationships. Because of the whole life impact poor sleep has, I add acupuncture points to ease sleep on nearly every patient I see.

The amount of sleep a person needs varies throughout life. Newborns need the most, with adults needing the least. The recommendation for adults is 7-8 hours of sleep a night, while nearly 30% of the population get only 6 hours or less. The elderly still need the same amount as younger adults, but their patterns shift to shorter and lighter chunks.

If you see your MD about sleep, you may be given advice on ways to improve your environment for sleep, a prescription sleep aid, or possibly a supplement recommendation. If you bring your sleep woes to an acupuncturist, we will look at things differently depending on the type of sleep problem you are having.

We look at the body systems in a more organic, whole body way and we concern ourselves not just with the physical function of the organ, but also with the “energetic” function of the organ systems. When I’m speaking to my patients about the energetics of an organ, to keep the confusion down, I jokingly refer to it as their Chinese organ. To keep this straight when writing, I capitalize the organ name when I’m referring to a energetic aspect versus a physical aspect.

Difficulty Falling Asleep - People with this kind of insomnia will toss and turn. We often look at this as an excess condition involving the Liver and Gall Bladder. In Chinese medicine, these two organ systems are responsible for the smooth flow of qi, our energy. In this situation the “excess” is like a stream that has overrun its banks, disturbing the smooth flow of the stream.

Difficulty Staying Asleep - This type of insomnia is usually a deficient condition. Sometimes they can go right back to sleep and sometimes they may be up for hours, or not get back to sleep at all. We view this as a deficiency involving Spleen and Heart. I’ve had personal experience with this type of insomnia. I went through a phase after having kids where I could fall asleep no problem, but would be wide awake 20 minutes later. Turns out I was anemic. In Chinese medicine, the Spleen and Heart are both involved with the control of the blood and blood vessels.

Dream DisturbedSleep - This can be two different problems depending on the way it is expressed. Nightmares generally involve the Gall Bladder, while repetitive dreams, or even being unable to shut the mind off is more of a Spleen and Heart imbalance. In the Chinese way of thinking, the Spleen and Heart are connected to the mind and thought.

Waking at a Specific Time of Night - This is probably the most common type of sleep disturbance I see in my patients.. More often than not people wake up between 3 and 5 am, the liver time in Chinese medicine. This is a problem of stagnation of the flow of energy, or from a western perspective, blood and oxygen. There is often an emotional component, frustration, anger or stress.

That is all fine and good, but now what? Your treatment will involve a session(s) of acupuncture designed to address your specific imbalance. In general even people who don’t come in for sleep disorders will sleep better after acupuncture. Most of my patients even doze on the table! Love me a great nap with needles acu-snooze!!!

But, acupuncture isn’t the only thing an acupuncturist can do to help with sleep. In addition to diet and lifestyle changes, I also recommend Chinese herbal formulas. They are rarely given as a single herb that you might find on the shelves of the local market, instead they are a combination of herbs combined to work synergistically. Chinese herbal formulas are also different than a traditional sleep aid. They are designed to address a specific imbalance, and depending on the form of the herb, can be customised for each individual and they are not habit forming. There are several different Chinese herbal formulas that are helpful for sleep and each mix is designed for a specific imbalance.

I also like to give my patients ways they can help themselves. I might recommend a stretch, a tea or a supplement. A copy of blood work can be helpful, and in the case of insomnia, it can pinpoint some easy to fix areas. Common causes of insomnia that show up in blood work are thyroid problems, low B vitamins, iron deficiency anemia and hormone imbalances.

Finally, some self care things you can do to improve your sleep.

Exercise - Move your body every day. A well worked body is a tired body. However don’t exercise too vigorously before bed or it can have the opposite effect.

Diet - Try to leave 2-4 hours between your last meal and bedtime. Avoid stimulants like caffeine before bed. Some sources say that a glass of wine before bed can be relaxing, but for the most part, no alcohol before bed is a better bet. Our liver is most active at night cleaning things up and our modern lifestyle exposes us to lots of toxins that it needs to take care of. It’s best not to overburden it any more than we already do. A cup of herbal tea before bed can be relaxing and one that supports liver function, such as dandelion root, can help the liver with its job. Environment - Avoid electronics for at least 30 minutes before bed, this includes your cellphone. Get rid of light in the blue/green spectrum in your room. Reduce as many light and sound sources as you can. I cover my red clock with a pillow when I go to sleep. A bedtime ritual of yoga or meditation can go a long way to help slow your mind and get it ready to shut down for the night. There are lots of Youtube channels you can check out for free yoga and meditation - just do it at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep!

Routine - Set yourself a regular schedule for sleep and stick to it, even on the weekend. Aim to hit the sack by 10 or 11 every night. If you work a swing shift or nights, it is still important to set a schedule. Your body will get used to the idea of a bed time, and start looking forward to it. Don’t let your phone, TV shows, work throw you off... or even a good book (guilty!). They will still be there when you wake up, and you can better enjoy them if you are well rested.

Poor sleep is frustrating. It makes everything more difficult. Sometimes it’s out of your control - when you don’t feel well, the kids wake up, or you have noisy neighbors. For the most part, there is hope and it doesn’t have to be of the pharmaceutical variety. Acupuncture, herbs or supplements, and small diet and lifestyle can naturally make a big change in quality of sleep.

Blame it on your busy life, stress levels, kids and/or even society’s pressure for women to be stick-thin, superheroes that can do it all in a day. Blame it on whatever or whomever you want, but when you’re having a preventable, major medical emergency, none of that matters. You instantly realize that you are, and always have been, the one person who is left with your choices, whether they are active or habitual.

Yowza. That’s a dose of reality to start things off.

I’m of the philosophy that you’ll continue to be presented with a lesson until you learn from it. Active self-care was a lesson I have taught for years, as well as continued to retake many times, albeit at an advanced level each time. Scored my Ph.D. at the School of Hard Knocks.

One of teachers and co-instructors for many years was my first acupuncturist, Dr. Stacy David of Peak Oriental Wellness. I scheduled my first appointment with her for seasonal allergies relief. I left my appointment without seasonal allergies for over a year and without the constant arthritic pain I’d known for 20 years. It would be another 9 months after that appointment before my joint pain returned.

The question in my mind instantly became, “if acupuncture works this well, then why doesn’t everyone get it for all their health problems?”

Stacy has noticed that a client’s nutritional status affects the outcome of their acupuncture appointments. As a nutritionist who practices what she preaches because I genuinely love healthy foods, Stacy said that my drastic results were exemplary, but not the norm. In fact, I was an outlier to the normal results. The better nourished the patient, the more they get out of their acupuncture appointments.

Over the years we discussed nutrition as it related to our clienteles, friends, family and selves. We saw a very clear pattern in the deficiencies women have and how that affects both their health and lives. We also saw the amazing benefits to their lives when they got their nutrition on track by eating healthy foods rich in these nutrients.

At that time I was practicing as a nutritionist is Casper, Wyoming. Over the years I began to notice patterns amongst my clients, who were mostly women. I saw that the most common nutrient deficiencies in women were minerals, interestingly enough. Iron may make the mainstream health education most often, and for good reasons, but it was one of four mineral deficiencies I saw time and time again in women: calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium.

Whoa Nelly! Now stop right there. Finish this article before you even think about ordering a supplement. Let’s dig deep to find the root cause, as well as the signs, symptoms and best of all benefits of getting those nutrients from food.

Calcium

For the most part when the word calcium comes up we think 3 things:

I’m not getting enough.

Calcium comes from dairy.

Calcium is for bones.

But there is far more to this mineral than those 3 things. I recently got a review lesson on calcium and self-care. For months I struggled with painful joints, bones and muscles during my yoga practice, despite the fact that the meditation, spirituality and consistency components of my practice were going better than ever. Then in a Universal moment of “everything for a reason” I started working on an article about calcium that brought everything full circle.

Like many women, I limit my dairy consumption. For me it’s because dairy breaks out my skin, lowers my energy and upsets my stomach. Without even thinking about calcium, I switched to organic coconut milk with the ingredient panel that read only organic coconut and filtered water. The only dairy that I would get was on a rare occasion sprinkled on a salad or on my tacos – so I was getting an ounce or two of dairy every Tuesday. Ha! (I live for Taco Tuesday.)

In writing the article I rediscovered/remembered all the wonderful things that calcium does. It’s been a bit more than a quick minute since I’ve been in my nutrition college courses. As soon as I jotted down some notes about calcium’s role in muscle contraction/relaxation a huge, metaphorical light bulb clicked on above my head! I knew that I hadn’t been getting enough calcium for months.

I immediately took my work to heart. I took the very calcium rich food list I had made for people to download, printed it out and took it to the grocery store. While it’ll be a cold day in Hades before I purchase canned fish, I made a note of enjoying recipes that include them when I’m out to eat. Hello Caesar dressing and olive tapenade!

I basically grabbed one of everything else on the list and started eating them as snacks and creating recipes I also did some deep research on calcium supplements and discovered a plant based calcium supplement that works for me. It contains all the nutrients I need to absorb and utilize my calcium and because it’s plant based, it won’t have the detrimental effects of poor quality calcium supplements.

Within a few weeks I had a magical ‘aha’ moment when I was able to bend my knees during my yoga practice for the first time in months. My entire practice physically went deeper than it ever had. All because I had given my joints, bones and muscles the nutrient they desperately needed.

Iron

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affects over 2 billion people worldwide! YOWZA! That is a huge number. Unless you have one of the few genetic conditions that causes lifelong iron deficiency anemia, such as sickle cell anemia or thalassemia, IDA can be resolved through diet, and in extreme cases supplementation per your healthcare provider’s recommendation.

Unless need be, iron supplementation is generally not the way to go as supplements can cause severe gastric distress and constipation. Your healthcare provider can direct you to or prescribe a supplement that doesn’t have these effects.

In 8 years that I practiced nutrition, countless women I saw had IDA and accepted it as who they were. IDA is a deficiency that drains your quality of life as the signs and symptoms include fatigue, constantly feeling cold, hair loss, pallor (pale appearance), dark circles under your eyes, impaired immune system, delayed wound healing, irritability and impaired thought process.

Eating iron rich foods on a consistent basis, paired with foods rich in vitamins A and C can amend an iron deficiency. What’s super cool is that since the body really needs iron, when you’re deficient, your cells create more iron receptors to increase your iron absorption. That’s why one of the clinical biomarkers for IDA is having an increased Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC) on your bloodwork.

Magnesium

In all the years I practiced nutrition, I only had 23 clients without a magnesium deficiency. That’s because magnesium is found in seeds, nuts and beans: foods that Americans don’t generally gravitate towards. What’s worse is magnesium is needed for over 300 functions in the human body ranging from nerve functions to bone health.

Hold you horses before you reach for a supplement. If you’ve ever had a colonoscopy you’ve been given a bottle of magnesium citrate by your doc to ‘clean you out’ before the procedure. It comes with instructions not to leave the house for 24 hours dues to its efficacy. Glad you didn’t order a magnesium supplement before you knew that?

Magnesium is an electrolyte and a sudden influx is going to cause a host of issues, inclusive of, but not limited to, diarrhea. If you want a supplement see your healthcare provider to get the correct form that’s not going to leave you feeling miserable. In the meantime, make consuming seeds, nuts and beans a daily habit for the rest of your life. If you’re allergic to one of those categories of foods, try the others. Get creative with seeds: bananas, raspberries, strawberries, zucchini and cucumbers all have edibles seeds.

Potassium

Potassium is a major electrolyte used to pump your heart, amongst other things. Do not take a supplement unless your healthcare provider prescribes one for you – no exceptions. Improper supplementation can cause heart problems, as well as the same issues as improper magnesium supplementation.

Potassium is needed for healthy blood pressure, as well as healthy muscles as a whole. Because we need it for important functions, it’s found readily in nature in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.

This deficiency can be easy to spot. A big sign of chronic potassium deficiency is an overwhelming craving for something sweet, bready or crunchy. Before processed foods or even agriculture, if you wanted something sweet, bready and/or crunchy your only options in nature to satiate those cravings were fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.

In today’s food supply, if you’re craving sweet, bready and/or crunchy you’re in trouble because your options are a bevy of potassiumless foods like cakes, breads, cookies and chips. If you’re fighting a sweet tooth, your best ally maybe eating a bowl of organic berries and bananas instead of a candy bar. Consistently eating potassium rich foods is great for your health and can finally help you cure that darn sweet tooth!

Bringing It Home

In nature, no nutrient travels alone. Eating foods rich in calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium can have tremendous positive effects on your body and mind. As Stacy Davis has pointed out it can make your help you get more out of your health treatments. Furthermore, when you’re feeling better and thinking better, you’re going to get more out of your day. All of which translates to better job performance, better human interactions and more joy. Now that’s a beautiful life lesson.

Sheila Amir is the Sheila of NutritionSheila.com, a swell website loaded with nutrition, health and wellness information sprinkled with wit.

Author

Dr. Stacy Davis is a Cheyenne native and graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor's Degree in Health Science. She completed her Master's of Science in Oriental Medicine in 2007 and maintains her NCCAOM certification as well as her licensure through the state of New Mexico. There is no licensure in the state of Wyoming.

After practicing in New Mexico for a short time, Dr. Davis decided to come back home to Wyoming and opened her practice in 2008.